The Joomla! Community Magazine™

Helvecio da Silva

Graphic and web designer, I use Joomla since 2005. Currently based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I run my own design studio - HLVC Design - as a consultant in web and graphic design, Joomla, Wordpress, Online Social Media and Online Marketing. Passionate about my work and Joomla, I'm always eager to find more and more about the system and share my knowledge with the community. Visit my profile at http://volunteers.joomla.org/joomlers/helvecio-da-silva- - -

Social Profiles

This quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower touched me in a special way: Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because s/he wants to do it. Leadership is about setting an example on how to do the right things. And show others how to do it by giving direction and inspiration.

Back when Joomla was released I started to benefit from its features. My career took a new turn and I can say that my life changed because of Joomla. For sometime I thought I was in Love with Joomla. Only recently have I understood what that feeling really is.

There are times when the project of a site calls for the introduction of texts to be visible by general audiences, but if the visitor wants to see the full article, s/he must log in to the system. The full content is blocked and only after the visitor creates or is granted an access account will s/he be able enjoy the full content of the article.

When I landed at Frankfurt airport, I was not sure what to expect. That was a first time in many levels for me: my first time in Europe, my first time in Germany (which I longed to visit for decades) and my first time at a J and Beyond.

A couple of days ago I came across yet another article announcing the decline of Joomla and the ascension of WordPress. As an admirer of the author's past work and presentations, at first I expected this would be some kind of fun article. I was astonished to read a serious article, where WordPress, Wix, Orkut, Facebook, journalists, and digital media agencies were cited as an anticipation of Joomla's demise.

When I arrived at the Harvard Medical School building for the Joomla! World Conference 2013, I took a moment to look around. In November 2012 I went to San Jose, CA, to attend the very first JWC. There, I expanded my understanding about what the Open Source community is all about, and I got involved in the Joomla community as an illustrator for the Joomla! Community Magazine. After a while I started to wonder: what's next? I went to the second Joomla! World Conference in Boston looking for an answer...

Rogério Costa (@matofino) created and carried out an initial exploratory research with approximately 30 specific questions about the use of Joomla. The issues covered important points, and among them we can mention: technical questions, learning, information exchange in the community, type of clients and services, prices, etc. The research was conducted in January and February of 2012, and involved the participation of 170 users in 21 states of Brazil. With the results we have the first map about the Joomla industry which can be analyzed from several aspects.

In June I will be in São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America. During an event called The e-Show, I will be making a presentation about how the community is important to Joomla! I sent out a request for a video where people would state their names, occupation and proudly say: "I AM JOOMLA!".

In June I will be making a presentation in the biggest city of Brazil: São Paulo. I will introduce to people what Joomla is all about and I want them to know that "Joomla is People!". And for that, I'm reaching out to the community for help.

When I first discovered a CMS, years ago, I saw a tool that would help me broaden my menu of services as a designer. After all these years, I feel as if I have gone through a life changing experience and I thank a thriving community of people from different parts of the world who work together, in diferent areas, to keep Joomla alive.

One of the presentations I was most interested in during the Joomla World Conference 2012 was Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the JCM (But Were Afraid to Ask) by Alice Grevet and Dianne Henning. They promoted the magazine and how it can be an asset for people with different interests related to Joomla! It made me wonder, how much of Joomla.org is still invisible to the vast majority.

The International Translation Team members are a bit anonymous. They are all great contributors, but not really recognizable in the community. We want to change that! Let’s tell the Joomla Community who they are and share their experiences and expectations with the world!

Some years ago I started using Mambo simply as a tool to help me provide a better service for my clients. After coming back from the very first Joomla World Conference I decided to look back and realized I've come a long way, baby!